Some electric lawn mowers has a main body provided with wheels, a mowing unit including a cutter blade, and an electric motor for driving the cutter blade, and further has a handle including a pair of side rod members extending rearward from the main body (see JPH02-055521U, US2013/0046448A1, and EP2875709A1, for example). In such an electric lawn mower, an operation lever is pivotably provided to the handle, such that an operation of the operation lever turns on/off an electric switch to thereby drive/stop the electric motor and hence the cutter blade.
As the operation lever turns on/off the electric switch by being rotated relative to the handle by a prescribed rotation angle, the operation lever is only required to be rotatable relative to the handle within a prescribed rotation angle range, and a stopper for restricting the rotation range of the operation lever is provided.
If an external force (operation force) for rotating the operation lever relative to the handle beyond the prescribed rotation angle range is applied to the operation lever, an excessive load acts on the operation lever to cause deformation or damage to the operation lever and/or the stopper. To prevent the operation lever and the stopper from suffering deformation or damage, it may be considered to increase the strength of these components, but the increase in the strength would lead to an increase in size of the operation lever and the stopper, which in turn would reduce the degree of design freedom of the operating portion including the operation lever.